It's the Great Pumpkin [Patch] Charlie Brown

 Last year I planted six pumpkin seeds in a far corner of the raised beds, got six pumpkin vines they produced six nice sized pumpkins.  This year, my husband said, since we have all of this room, why not just plant them in the field?  So we asked our friend to bring his tiller up and till a space for them.  We will reimburse him in pumpkins.

This reminded me why we converted to raised beds.

When the soggy clay mixes with the chopped vegetation, you get sticky cob with which to build a house.  We tried raking it, but there was no raking.  We ended up waiting for a dryish day and stomping it flat with our feet to the point where we felt we could get the small tractor with the turf tires on it.  After we stomped it, drove over it, then rolled it, it was manageable again.  I just wanted it flat enough to put landscape cloth over without creating puddles.  If we had left the vegetation untilled, it would have grown under the mat and lifted it.  Ask me how I know.

We have a large roll of road stabilization mat that goes under a gravel base when you want to create a driveway on soft ground.  We can reuse this later.  We rolled out two fifty foot lengths, leaving a 10" gap down the center and tacked it down with large spikes and washers.  Then I planted my pumpkin seeds that I have saved from last year's pumpkins.  Those pumpkins were grown from seeds I saved from a store bought pumpkin the year before.  I think I planted about 78 seeds.  Today when I watered I counted 76 sprouted plants.

I wanted to protect the seeds from squirrels and chipmunks and racoon.  Now that I have sprouts I need to protect those from the crows and ravens.  After that, I will want to protect the small plants from deer.

Once they get about a foot high, they are on their own.  Deer shouldn't be too interested in fuzzy, prickly pumpkin vines.  I plan to train the vines across the twelve foot expanse in either direction.  They should like the warmth of the soil under the black mat, and I won't have to worry about weeds making a mess and competing for water.

Since we will be able to reuse the mat and the seeds were saved, the project is virtually zero cost.   Now I just need them to grow.